Some Good Timin':

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZMyOGaQFVQ

Thank you ! Brian sounds very good. Also on the otehr song snippets


Damnit ! The audience goes crazy after WIBN !!  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5VGJan_pmI&feature=relmfu

Perfect! Big ups for Ego and Rocker for those vids best moment of the show in NJ hands down!

STAAAAAAAAAAND UP!!!!!!!!!!!

"I don't believe in that album and it's an embarrassment to my life. It should self-destruct.. I hope that the karma will f*** up Mike Love’s meditation forever."

- Dennis Wilson on the MIU album
Just stronger songs and less embarassment on LA album.  Plus a lot more Dennis and Carl on LA.  For me again its a no brainer.  Though "Sweet Sunday Kinda Love" is a great forgotten gem of MIU.  

The love this audience had for wouldn't it be nice was astounding.  I've never in my life seen a song in the middle of a concert just get waves and waves of applause and a standing ovation.  Mike just stood back and took it all in.  

Overall, the energy was incredible.  

Yes! I was at this show and it was amazing energy and it seemed so spontaneous for the standing O after "Wouldnt it Be Nice"  - So awesome!  I dont know if that happened at previous shows but it seemed that Mike was really taken aback by it all has he tried a couple of times to introduce the next song but the audience would not sit down and stop cheering.  One of thee best moments of the entire show.  I hope somebody has video of it!!

Couple of other observations Brian was feelin it, as other ppl said he was singing a lot and also directing the band through hand motions from his piano, very cool to see.  I was a little bummed that "Marcella" and "Our Prayer" didnt make it on the set but "Good Timin" was cool and "Come Go With Me" wasnt bad but I woulda preferred "Marcella" or "Our Prayer".  But hey got "This Whole World".

Great mixture of fans young and old, I talked to one fan while tailgating before the show who saw them while he was stationed in Pearl Harbor, HI in 1963 and yes it was packed.  I saw The Who back in 06' at PNC at it wasnt that packed, guess the Beach Boys grab more the casual music fans than The Who does.

L.A hands down and its not even close.  Some of Dennis' best and final work.  Him and Carl kill it on the album

I love the organ music, the bridge on Wendy.  That's a full blown song, all the voices are letting it out, on Wendy. Getting dumped by a girl named Wendy, oh the pain.

I concur

One of their best pre Pet Sounds thats for sure, But Im sure nobody can honestly say they like MIU, KTSA, SIP more than this.

I agree to a point where you cant say its a great album with songs like Drive In, Carls Big Chance, or the awful Do You Remember, where they just name check past rock and roll greats(Hey it sucked when the Ramones did it too, even with Phil Spector producing it)

But it did have some great songs on it, some of the best of their career to that date in my opinion.

[so tell her she smells good tonight!]

2 moments for me, had a long drive back from North Carolina so I played plenty of Beach Boys

1. "Love is woman, so tell her she smells good tonight! and then BW's voice not being able to carry the next "Love"
2. Our Prayer Dialog, the direction that Brian gives (which Love asks for) and then asking the group "You feeling the acid yet?"

I though they were too obvious but nobody has mentioned these yet:

Fleet Foxes big time!!!!  Surprised nobody has mentioned them yet.  The similarities are uncanny-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrQRS40OKNE

and this one! Im mean come on there are goats in the video, maybe a tip of the cap to Pet Sounds album cover???

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brZTvGIzeGg

Also to a bit lesser extent Grizzley Bear especialy their song 'Two Weeks' he can hear it in the piano/organ playing totally Brian.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjecYugTbIQ

Both of these people should be hunted down and shot.

I'd rather listen to any Death Row or Bad Boy rap album from the 90s rather than The Beach Boys' abysmal post-Brian albums like Carl and the Passions or  The M.I.U Album.

Carl and the Passions>M.I.U

Now M.I.U and Keepin the Summer Alive thats a better pairing.  But I agree alot of music is better than those albums not just 90's gangster rap.

Personally I love that there are just SO MANY albums, even if not all of 'em are perfect... The quality of music that was consistently sustained from 1962-1973 in incredible, especially considering there was so much of it and it was being released at such a frantic pace. Breathtaking, really.

It is amazing when you really think about the music they put out in such a short period of time, your right.  Thats why I created that previous post on what the their early albums could of sounded like if the Boys didnt have to record at a frantic pace.  I wasnt dismissing their albums but thought they could have been much better if given the proper time.  Its hypothtical I know, being that very few rock groups or musicians in the US or UK were trying to construct comprehensive LPs at the time.  So this is out of pure speculation and fun.

Some ppl on here, Stebbins included, thought it was blasphomus but it really was just thrown out here for an interesting topic to discuss,  I enjoy their early work but up until All Summer Long their records sounded rushed, and backlogged with studio banter, covers and intrumentals or studio, where the orginal versions sound much better and stronger.   For the record they achieved glimpses of greatness on Surfin USA and Surfer Girl but both albums for me hit a few snags along the way.

What is great for me personaly and one of the reasons I started this topic was it allowed me to go back to their early work and find an appreciation for the songs:
Spirit of America
Moon Dawg
Cindy,Oh Cindy
Surfer Jam
Stoked

as well as a couple older gems in "Come Go With Me" and "Where I Belong". I overlooked these in my naivety.  So thank you all for the suggestions, comments, and critisims.  Hopefully more will follow

P.S. coco-some great examples you listed.  Where do you find a cover of "The Letter"?  Im a big Alex Chilton fan and it would be cool to have a copy of the Boys doing a cover of the Box Tops

Hip Hop Artist G-Eazy samples Good Vibrations in a track called "Endless Summer".  Im a hip hop fan I think the dude does a good job and serves the track justice.  Heres the link

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fb5qybFOSKA

The whole mix tape is a mash up of a lot of older tracks he even does a video for the track Runaround Sue, which of course he samples Dions big hit
Here is the link for that

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-dxZ3_3oBs&feature=related

The sampling for thr g-easy track was well done in my opinion.

Agreed, the rapping is a bit average but I thought the production of the track was quite good.  Overall I think its very hard to sample Brian Wilson produced track he put so many different progressions and intruments in his work it almost impossible because when you sample to loop a track your only getting a few seconds work of material to draw an audience in.  That is almost the opposite of what Brian Wilson does.

As for disliking rap its in the eye of the beholder.  There is some real good stuff out there but unfortunately it doesnt get the giant share of the exposure as the club/dance/r&b hip hop hybrid gets.

Hip Hop Artist G-Eazy samples Good Vibrations in a track called "Endless Summer".  Im a hip hop fan I think the dude does a good job and serves the track justice.  Heres the link

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fb5qybFOSKA

The whole mix tape is a mash up of a lot of older tracks he even does a video for the track Runaround Sue, which of course he samples Dions big hit
Here is the link for that

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-dxZ3_3oBs&feature=related

unsatisfied and wondering "what if?" and I thought we all could try to answer that question on a Beach Boys fan forum.

Another Example would be what Surfs Up LP should/could have sounded like:
Get rid of 'take a load off your feet' and add the two Dennis songs '4th of July' and 'Carry me home' and you may of one of the best albums of the 70's not just one of the best albums the Beach Boys made in the 70's.  Again Im not sh**ing on the Surfs Up LP, I thought it would be fun and interesting to discuss this- which is the point of having a forum to discuss topics like this?? But Mr. Stebbins I would already know your answer you would tell me why Surfs Up is truly great in its present form and doesnt need to be changed. 

No. Two of my books make the point that Surfs Up suffered greatly from not having the Dennis material... and with it could have been among the greatest BB's LPs. The tracks would have likely been 4th of July and Wouldn't It Be Nice To Live Again. As Paulos stated Carry Me Home is more of a Holland outtake.

But to say Brian was pressured, and you wish he had more time for the Surfin USA LP is projecting something that didn't exist then. He was excited to have the platform, he worked fast, he produced a great record from beginning to end that was progressive, cutting edge, and massively successful. LDC is really the first case of Brian compromising to get product out. The first LP is weak because other than Surfin Safari, 409, Moon Dawg there are too many gimmicky songs that don't really reflect the aesthetic of the band. the reason is they were green, Murry had too much influence, and Brian not enough leverage. Surfin USA is a pure statement of what the Beach Boys were at the time, the instrumentals have as much importance as the vocal songs because the Beach Boys were bringing something cultish or regional to the masses. Dick Dale became a household name because of Surfin USA. I love the band's semi punk and primitive guitar heavy renditions. This was a radical sound for the mainstream. Surfer Girl is also a great record beginning to end, although a softer, smoother, less raw sound than the previous album. With LDC and SDV2 things began happening too fast. But still...All Summer Long...another perfect record beginning to end. Another masterpiece. And the live album was massive, important and great too. From there the genius kicked in but except for GV's the U.S. never connected as completely with Brian and the BB's again. Those early albums were important and to me they are too perfect to dismantle from a questionable perspective.

Again thanks for the insight.  For the record I always said in my opinon Surfer Girl and Surfin USA are the best out of the early Beach Boys catalog.  Just feel like it wasnt until All Summer Long they made a truly great record from begining to end, like you said before, then we get the materpiece of Today! shortly after.

The Beach Boys made such great music it just is frustrating to see that always find ways to drop the ball with some of their LPs whether it was from some of their early LPs or Smile, Surfs Up, Adult/Child, 15 Big Ones, LA Album (fully think this coulda been a very good LP if Dennis was able to get more input but maybe thats just wishfull thinking)

-On a side note Mr Stebbins Ive been trying to get a copy of your "Real Beach Boy" book for a while but cant find one besides ones at amazon for outrageous prices.  Been trying to read on up on some more insight on Dennis as you can see I am a bit biased towrds his out put to the Beach Boys cannon.

I think Shut Down Vol II is their biggest "might have been" LP. The difference between the quality material and the filler on this LP is startling. Change of title, and the culling of the filler, and this could have been one their greatest albums.

Agree with you there 100%, the strong songs are so f'in strong!  And the filler is such obvious filler that it probably the most frustrating early Beach Boys LP.  I do kinda dig Dennys Drums in some weird way haha

The Beach Boys' Christmas Album
only songs worth having -
Little Saint Nick
Merry Christmas Baby

Errrrm, We Three Kings? Some frankly bizzarre track choices being made by people on this thread, it would seem that some posters love such 'classics' as How She Boogaloed It, Bluebirds Over The Mountain, Take A Load Off Your Feet and Student Demonstration Time but consider 409, Hawaii, A Young Man Is Gone, No Go Showboat, Drive In and many more to be 'turd' filler.

I love  "A Young Man is Gone" it has almost a haunting quality to it, I can roll w/ 409 but Drive In, No Go Show Boat dont really care for too much.  "Take a Load off..", and SDT are easily the weakest on  Surfs Up and I have always said that if you elminate "take a load off.." and add Dennis's "4th of July" and "Carry me Home" and Surfs Up is an amazing LP.

Dennis is my dude so I guess I am biased towards his selections

I think this is revisionist blather. Surfin USA was an innovative and edgy album in the context of its time. It was absolutely progressive in the rock realm for 1963. Its a great record beginning to end. The "turds" are some of my favorite moments in the BB's canon. You want to dissect a perfect piece of art with your latter day perspective which dismisses context and skews balance.  The "average" music fan is a subjective thing to gauge. When this album was made the average rock fan thought it was really cool, instrumentals, vocals, the whole thing. It was cutting edge, fun, hip, and perfect. Don't f*ck with the formula.

I dont want ppl to take this thread the wrong way.  It is not a put down to their early work, it is a what if scenerio if the Beach Boys and Brian inparticuliar had more quality control over their work.  I dont think you can argue that the perfectionist Brian was during this creative period that if he was given proper time he wouldnt have released a lot of the tracks that he did from Surfin Safari-Shut Down Vol 2.

To play devils' advocate if your judging the albums in the context of the times (63-64), You have the Freewheelin Bob Dylan, Times are A Changin, Sam Cooke Night Beat, With the Beatles, Please Please Me, Beatles For Sale, Hard Days Night, Rolling Stones, and Animals debut.  And for just the surf rock genre you have great albums by the Ventures, Lively Ones, and an awesome live album by Bo Diddley called Beach Party.  All I feel rival or surpass the Beach Boys LP output from this time. 

The point is if Brian had time I think those early albums would have been amazing and history would hold them a lot higher regards (Look what he did when he did have time once he quit touring, you get Today!).  I know a lot of ppl like those songs so again sorry if I offended anybody, maybe its a relatively generational thing the older fans who were around at that time really dig it and that cool, I respect that I wasnt alive at that time.  I just feel it doesnt holds up today.

Again, its about context, which your rationale is badly skewing in your response. If you are serious about examining the release in its environment then you should know what you're talking about before passing judgement. There is no comparison between the Surfin USA LP and ANY of the examples you cited. To me the examples you chose just show how naive or uninformed you are. There was nothing in the U.S. mainstream even close to Surfin USA. It completely changed everything. Its the very first rock vocal album by a self contained act that sold in the millions and dominated radio and the charts for months and months. This was Lady Gaga huge in its time. Freewheelin Bob Dylan didn't make the top 20 and had no hit singles, and wasn't rock or even teen oriented. Times They Are A Changin' is an even less relevant comparison. The Beatles? Seriously? Nobody had heard of the Beatles in the states and wouldn't for almost a year after Surfin USA began tearing up the industry like Godzilla. Animals, that's a year and half later, The Stones didn't have a top-ten hit here until TWO YEARS after Surfin USA...these lengths of time in the context of that culture is like ten or twenty years now. The Ventures, Lively Ones, etc...were not vocal groups, they were not huge trends, they didn't sell anywhere close to Surfin USA and had minimal cultural impact in comparison. Bo Diddley never had a TOP 40 album in his life. I feel like maybe you're a plant and somebody is around the corner laughing at me right now. Geez those were lame examples. You obviously have little understanding how a GIANT record like Surfin USA came pretty much out of nowhere and created a new genre, self-contained teen album rock, which paved the way for everything that came in the subsequent USA teen- market years like the Beatles, Stones, Byrds, which led to the Doors, Hendrix, Zeppelin, which led to etc.. etc... Surfin USA was the first monster USA rock album that wasn't by a solo singer like Elvis, Rick Nelson or some other teen idol. Before it there was no real serious album market for ROCK BANDS. Do you understand that? It is a masterpiece and Brian loves all of it.

Thanks for that, Jon. That is some serious sh*t there with the Surfin' USA album. As much as I have read about the band, I did not realize the impact that it had on the record industry. Some very cool stuff, there.

I appreicate the response but I still think your love for this period of Beach Boys music is blinding the fact the Surfin USA LP isnt considered a great LP in the history of Rock, which was my whole point of the discussion.  The song was, yes, there is no denying that.  But all the LPs I mentioned in the previous post all came during 63-64 period and I feel are stronger LP's from cover to cover and layed the blueprint to what rock itself eventually became, while the surfing fad eventually died .  If Brian had enough time he could have crafted a truly amazing LP that could trancend rock music and not just sound like a surf rock genre piece.  Hell he did this album in little over a month!!!  You can look at that say 'wow!', to do what he did in so little time an still crafted a solid album and I agree with you. 

But again I chose not to do that-Im a history guy so I am constanly calculating the "what if" scenerio and since this is a forum I thought it would be a fun topic to discuss because to me as a younger fan looking back at their music its frustrating to see that Capital constantly needed a Beach Boys product in the market which led to their early LPs to be watered down.  If you look at my posts I give nothing but praise to Surfer Girl and Surfin USA but it always leaves me a bit unsatisfied and wondering "what if?" and I thought we all could try to answer that question on a Beach Boys fan forum.

Another Example would be what Surfs Up LP should/could have sounded like:
Get rid of 'take a load off your feet' and add the two Dennis songs '4th of July' and 'Carry me home' and you may of one of the best albums of the 70's not just one of the best albums the Beach Boys made in the 70's.  Again Im not sh**ing on the Surfs Up LP, I thought it would be fun and interesting to discuss this- which is the point of having a forum to discuss topics like this?? But Mr. Stebbins I would already know your answer you would tell me why Surfs Up is truly great in its present form and doesnt need to be changed. 

And Mr Stebbins you did shed some new and interesting light and offer a different perspective on the Surfin USA LP that I did not realize before but I still believe that it is more known for its title track, the brillant Lonely Sea, possibly Farmers Daughter than the LP itself.  Which brings me back to reason for the thread, just imagine if Brian had maybe 4 or 5 months to craft this LP???  Wow.

I think this is revisionist blather. Surfin USA was an innovative and edgy album in the context of its time. It was absolutely progressive in the rock realm for 1963. Its a great record beginning to end. The "turds" are some of my favorite moments in the BB's canon. You want to dissect a perfect piece of art with your latter day perspective which dismisses context and skews balance.  The "average" music fan is a subjective thing to gauge. When this album was made the average rock fan thought it was really cool, instrumentals, vocals, the whole thing. It was cutting edge, fun, hip, and perfect. Don't f*ck with the formula.

I dont want ppl to take this thread the wrong way.  It is not a put down to their early work, it is a what if scenerio if the Beach Boys and Brian inparticuliar had more quality control over their work.  I dont think you can argue that the perfectionist Brian was during this creative period that if he was given proper time he wouldnt have released a lot of the tracks that he did from Surfin Safari-Shut Down Vol 2.

To play devils' advocate if your judging the albums in the context of the times (63-64), You have the Freewheelin Bob Dylan, Times are A Changin, Sam Cooke Night Beat, With the Beatles, Please Please Me, Beatles For Sale, Hard Days Night, Rolling Stones, and Animals debut.  And for just the surf rock genre you have great albums by the Ventures, Lively Ones, and an awesome live album by Bo Diddley called Beach Party.  All I feel rival or surpass the Beach Boys LP output from this time. 

The point is if Brian had time I think those early albums would have been amazing and history would hold them a lot higher regards (Look what he did when he did have time once he quit touring, you get Today!).  I know a lot of ppl like those songs so again sorry if I offended anybody, maybe its a relatively generational thing the older fans who were around at that time really dig it and that cool, I respect that I wasnt alive at that time.  I just feel it doesnt holds up today.

As for 'Surfer Moon' I love that song.  The Surfer Girl album is their first truely solid LP in my opinion but again does suffer from the problems previously talked about.  I actually found clips on the internet a while back from when Keith Moon did a gig DJing a BBC show.  Moon was known Beach Boys fanatic even drummed in a band called the Beachcombers before joining the Who and he lead his show off with 'Surfer Moon' which fit perfect with the lyric "Theres a moon in the sky..." haha.

Anyway I could talke about this for hrs, in fact just got my tix for the PNC show in NJ.  Lawn Seats Baby!  We all could discuss this more over some John Daley drinks and Land Sharks.  I will be the guy yelling out for Brian obnoxiously during the show haha.

Surfer Girl
Surfin USA
Shut Down Vol 2
[Above average LP's that contain some absolutely brillant songs but suffer considerably from filler tracks such as half assed instrumentals and uninspired covers or poor surfer/car songs]

Surfin Safari
Little Duece Coupe
[For me easily the worst LP's from their early years.  Surfin Safari sounds like a group of overwelmed kids w/ a few good ideas trying to make a quick buck off the surfing craze.  Little Duece Coupe just a collection of their worst and in my opinon format for their songs, about cars!  and cmon for those who like it you cant defend the fact that two songs that appeared on the previous Surfer Girl LP now appear on Little Duece Coupe.  That just epitomizes the laziness and lack of orginality into this "concept" album (Sorry Disney Boy)

I think that's doing Surfer Girl a disservice. It only contains probably 3 filler songs. Surfin USA and Shut Down Vol 2 have far more imo.

Definetly rate Surfer Girl higher than Surfin USA and Shut Down, so maybe since I flubbed by putting Summer Days...on there I could elevate Surfer Girl w/ All Summer Long.  Now theres a debate which pre Today! album is best All Summer Long or Surfer Girl?  I couldnt even decide right now

As I was saying in a previous post -I think the average music fan dismisses their early work as throwaway surf and car songs, some of it was, but that was only a small percentage of their catalog.  The Beach Boys were working against a record company who wanted to constantly to throw 2 or 3 LP's out a year, so most of their early LP's suffer from being rushed.  Like I mentioned in a previous thread the best way to look at the early LP's is to throw away the "turd" and filler songs then combine the LPs that dropped that year.

But as we all know a lot of their early work was brillant, the LPs just werent consistant from front to back.

So here is a WHAT IF scenario if the BBoys werent under the gun and could have crafted just one great LP per year.

Beach Boys 1st album:

Surfin Safari USA
tracklisting
1.Surfin Safari
2.Little Girl (Your My Miss America)
3.409
4.Surfin
5.Summertime Blues
6.Cuckoo Clock
7.Surfin USA
8.Farmers Daughter
9.Lonely Sea
10.Shut Down
11.Noble Surfer
12.Lana

Sophmore album

Little Surfer Girl Vol 2
tracklisting
1.Surfer Girl
2.Catch a Wave
3.Surfer Moon
4.Little Duece Coupe
5.In My Room
6.Your Summer Dream
7.Be True to Your School
8. A Young Man is Gone
9.Fun,Fun,Fun
10.Dont Worry Baby
11.The Warmth of the Sun
12.Keep an eye on Summer

That sets them up for All Summer Long, Live Concert Album, Christmas Album, then the groundbreaking Today! album. 

This is what their early catalog might have looked like if they had a little more quality control over their music.

Summer Days... is not a pre-Today album. It was the next album after Today.

Damn your right thanks for the correction, I also mix that up because Today! the feels like the natural transition into Pet Sounds. 

In reguards to my previous post just scratch Summer Days off, though I do rank it right up their w/ All Summer Long

It seriously bugs me when the early albums get written off. Yes, Surfin' Safari is far from great (although they were basically kids when they made it don't forget...) and Surfin' USA has too many instrumentals (although the non-instrumentals are all great), aside from that i'd say they're all terrific albums.

Surfer Girl - aside from the throwaway Surfers Stomp, from start to finish a great album, with a solid 3 or 4 outright classics

Little Deuce Coupe - all of the new material is at the very least pleasant, and often fantastic (Custom Machine, Spirit of America)

Shut Down Vol 2 - aside from some occasional obvious filler, an album most bands would kill for: Fun Fun Fun, Dont Worry Baby, In The Parkin Lot, The Warmth Of The Sun, Why Do Fools..., Keep An Eye On Summer. And Carl's songwriting debut rocks!

All Summer Long - John Stebbins is right: one of their best!

The problem for the BB's is that their very best material is SO good that everything else gets overlooked!

I think the average music fan dismisses their early work as throwaway surf and car songs.  Which some of it was, but that was only a small percentage of their catalog.  The Beach Boys were working against a record company who wanted to constantly to throw 2 or 3 LP's out a year, so most of their early LP's suffer from being rushed.  Like I mentioned in a previous thread the best way to look at the early LP's is to throw away the "turd" and filler songs then combine the LPs that dropped that year.

But as we all know a lot of their early work was brillant, the LPs just werent consistant from front to back.  I rank the pre Today! albums like so:

All Summer Long
Summer Days (and Summer Nights!!)
[Easily their 2 best early work LPs, Brian slowly crafting a full LP worth of brillant material]

Surfer Girl
Surfin USA
Shut Down Vol 2
[Above average LP's that contain some absolutely brillant songs but suffer considerably from filler tracks such as half assed instrumentals and uninspired covers or poor surfer/car songs]

Surfin Safari
Little Duece Coupe
[For me easily the worst LP's from their early years.  Surfin Safari sounds like a group of overwelmed kids w/ a few good ideas trying to make a quick buck off the surfing craze.  Little Duece Coupe just a collection of their worst and in my opinon format for their songs, about cars!  and cmon for those who like it you cant defend the fact that two songs that appeared on the previous Surfer Girl LP now appear on Little Duece Coupe.  That just epitomizes the laziness and lack of orginality into this "concept" album (Sorry Disney Boy)

Personal tastes aside I think fans and critics easily rate Today!, Pet Sounds, and Sunflower has the three best Beach Boys albums.

Generally speaking that's probably so. But Surf's Up and Holland do get quite a few mentions too.

I think that the critics in the U.K. and U.S. seem to have slightly opinions though (could be wrong here).

I've seen career retrospectives in the U.K. which state that the albums from Pet Sounds through to Holland are all worth listening to and Today but none of the others. Some American critics seem to look on the early albums with more kindness.

Nicko I agree with your assesment from the UK US perspective bc from 67-74 the Beach Boys sales was mediocore to poor in the US.  While during that time the BBoys sales in the UK remained quite strong.  So UK retrospective might lean more towards these years than a US one.

Dont get me wrong I love Surfs Up and Holland its just the musical depth and the strength of the track are better on Today! Pet Sounds and Sunflower.  Take away Bull Sessions w/ Big Daddy and a medicore 'At My Window' you have three perfect albums that are orginal, groundbreaking, and influential in their own ways. 

I think Surfs Up and Holland fall a bit short.  'Take a Load off Your Feet' and 'Student Demonstration Time' are pretty below average tracks.  Though the last half of Surfs Up is down right amazing and sandwich in a decent 'Lookin At Tommorow' song (Man I wish they woulda let Dennis throw in a couple tracks like '4th of July' and 'Carry me Home' and Surfs Up possibly surpasses Sunflower and Today!)  Holland is pretty solid throughout not really a bad track on it eventhough 'Beaks of Eagles' comes close.  It is just Hollands highs never reach the highs of the '3pillar albums' or consistenly stay there.  I have to stop now or I am going to type I novel...haha

Disney Boy I checked out "Where I Belong" I must credit you with an assist on that one, solid track , that was reason for this thread to find a few more gems through the "turds"- I love it.  But to follow up on Little Duece Coupe you may be right in that I have been harsh on it but I feel the BBoys car songs are their weakest songs and have not aged too well in that regard.  I also feel that they come off a bit dare I say corny?  So a whole album of songs like that puts that album in the lower echelon of their discography.

And the Mt Veron EP is squirmishly bad w/ the narriation in my opinion.  But the Good Vibrations Box takes out the dialog and you get Brians singin and just the music in like a 4-5 min 1 song track which is not great but certainly better than the EP as a whole.  I just feel that Brian was completly off his rocker and possibly at his most weakest mentaly and this EP shows it.  But maybe thats the reason why ppl like it.

I mentioned in a previous post as a Beach Boys fan you learn to accept that throughout the amazing BBoys discography there are plently of filler/turd tracks you learn to dodge and dodging these filler/turd "songs"  seems to be almost a Beach Boys fan art form especially younger fans like myself who have the leisure of going back to the discography and deleting the turds/filler (Bless You iTunes). 

So how do you curate your Beach Boys catalog?

Heres Mine (Which I would happily give you my reasons for)

Surfin Safari : The only songs I think that are worth having are
Cukoo Clock
Surfin Safari
Little Girl (Miss America)
Summertime Blues

Surfin USA :
Lana
Shut Down
Surfin USA
Farmers Daughter
Lonely Sea

Surfer Girl :
Catch a Wave
In My Room
Surfer Moon
Surfer Girl
Surfers Rule
Your Summers Dream

Little Deuce Coupe :
Little Deuce Coupe
A Young Man Is Gone
Be True to your School

Shut Down Vol 2 :
Fun Fun Fun
This Car Of Mine
Why Do Fools Fall in Love
Dennys Drums
Warmth of the Sun
Keep an eye on Summer
Dont Worry Baby
I Do

All Summer Long :
Just eliminate - Carls Big Chance
Do You Remember
Drive In
Our Fav Record Sessions

Do not own Beach Boys Concert find no reason too

The Beach Boys' Christmas Album
only songs worth having -
Little Saint Nick
Merry Christmas Baby

Today!
Just eliminate - Bull Sessions w/ Big Daddy

Summer Days and Summer Nights
Just eliminate-Girl from NYc
Amusement Park USA
Salt Lake City
add Little Girl I Once knew

Party! Decent album only real turd is Times are a changin' but nothin really special besides Barbra Ann
Must have Youve got to Hide Your love away for the Denny lead vox and Brian and Mike telling the girls in the studio to shut up or go home at the end of the song!!

Pet Sounds :
Cmon essential listening for any music fan

Smiley Smile/Smile :
Have All of it

Wild Honey :
All

Friends :
All

20/20
All

Sunflower :
All

Surfs Up :
All

Carl and the Passions So Tough :
All

Holland :
All
Do not have the Mt Vernon EP just have Fairy Tale Music for the GV Box Set

Beach Boys in Concert
All

15 Big Ones (aka 6 kinda sorta Big Ones):
Its OK
Had to Phone Ya
That Same Song
Back home
In the still of the Night (gotta have that Denny Vox)
Just once in my Life

Love You :
All

MIU :
Only song worth having- My Diane

LA Album:

Good Timin
Full Sail
Angel Come Home
Love Surrounds Me
Baby Blue

Keepin the Summer Alive
Livin with heartache
Goin On

BB*85 -
Getcha Back
Male Ego

Gotta include Live at Knebworth and the bonus tracks on the digital albums that their singles r included on like Break Away, Celebrate the News, etc.

Let me know if I should have included any more or any that should be removed.  Again it is in fun and my opinion, to me its kinda of the fun of being a fan.